Random Alias

Not really Durham, but 2 in Chapel Hill Southern Season - For shopping Southern Season And if you haven't seen it yet - For Lunch Allen & Son

Even a sandwhich shop has to be a chain to survive today. Sandwhiches - cheap, simple, almost foolproof, yet Joe Public would rather go to Subway. We're doomed - move to a big city.

I wonder if that has to do with cosmetics. All the Florida citrus I've recieved from my parents over the years is not cosmetically perfect like the stuff in the grocery stores - it's full of wind scars (brown spots). It's usually better quality as far as taste goes, just not as pretty. This is all from the Indian River area (central Florida, East coast) where I grew up and my parents still live. There really isn't a lot of citrus grown in South Florida as I remember.

Sounds like a good time. I'm looking forward to the findings, as you'll hopefully save me some research. I'm actually suprised there are so few on the list, I'd have thought there would be more (even without the steak houses).

No, it's not a chain. I think it used to be a fairly normal French restaurant, but they remodled earlier this year and changed up the menu a bit. They generally get good reviews so I was really surprised by how we were treated. I could deal with the decor, but not the attitude. Here's a review. The food sounds like something I'd like, but I'm guessing it'll be quite some time before I find out. We may not have a ton of choice in this area for dining at that price level, but we have enough. http://www.triangle.com/dining/restaurantr...p-7350270c.html

We had to make some keys made and found ourselves in the same shopping center as Margaux's. Seeing it reminded us that we've never eaten there, and as it's so close to our house we decided we should give it a try. We'd planning to have a nice meal that week anyways, so we called for reservations and got one for 2 days later at 7:30. We arrive at the place, and I'll start by saying it's weirdly decorated. It's like a 80s Gothic nightclub or something. Some wierd dungeon theme, lots of hard surfaces, and strangley aimed bright spot lights. If I had shown up here 20 years ago all dressed in black and somber looking, I would have thought it was a pretty cool place. Either ways, the hostess can't find our reservations, but as we looked around the restaurant was half empty so it didn' seem like it would be much of a problem. Wrong - she spent way too long questioning us about our reservations rather than just sitting us at one of the many available tables, but eventually she admitted it wouldn't be a problem and led us to our table. She never offered any apology over their screw up; if anything she acted as if we had made some mistake. Apparently people feigning reservations at half empty restaurants is a common occurance in Raleigh. We start heading for what looks like a nice table - 4 top against a wall, kind of out of the way, but that's not our table. No problem, there are several more good tables available, and apparently they're to remain available as we walk right past them to a very dark corner. In this corner, there is a tiny two top right next to the kitchen, and not set for service. Well, as we look out at the numerous empty tables, we decide we're not sitting here and ask for another table....and she balks. She just stares at us, finally my wife offers up that she doesn't hear that well and being so near the kitchen might make conversation difficult. She makes no attempt to hider her displeasure, sighs, but does starts walking back towards the numerous good tables we passed on our way to the corner. Of course, we walk right by them and she sits us at a 4-top right along the main pathway that the every server must take to get to any other table. This table also has two of the previously mentioned bright spot lights aimed right at it - one in my eyes, one in my wife's. I'm pretty certain we had just found the second worst table in the restaurant. We sit for about 30 seconds kind of laughing, kind of angry, and decide to leave. We called up Fins and made reservations for an hour later where we enjoyed an excellent meal, with excellent service, in a very comfortable booth that wasn't near the kitchen. So I don't know if Margaux's food is any good, but the service and atmosphere certainly isn't. I just don't think there's a huge market in N. Raleigh for rude service in a Gothic night club inspired setting, but then maybe I'm just getting old. Anybody actually made it to the menu there? Here's their website if you're interested: http://www.margauxsrestaurant.com/

Funny, then, how people in central North Carolina love it so. It's everywhere here in Raleigh. Even Burger King offers a Livermush burger. The Livermush Value Meal comes with the aforementioned burger, an order of hushpuppies, and a pint of moonshine. That's good eating.

A couple more listed here - some with pictures even. http://discovernewporttn.com/_dining/aadine.htm http://www.cockecounty.org/newportmerc.html Knoxville is going to have a lot more options, but it's 40 minutes or so away.

I made baklava for dinner.

Is it because they're higher priced? Or is it that the organic stuff isn't as pretty? Or is it just better selection?

Cool...this is right near my house. Hope it's a nice place. http://earthfare.com/release_full.asp?releaseID=17 The second location, near the Raleigh airport in the Brierdale Shopping Center in the Brier Creek development area, will feature a slightly larger product mix in a larger, 26,000 square foot space. It too will feature a sit down café and Community Room for public events.

We'd love to go, unless you pick the one weekend in September that the in-laws are here (They would not go). I believe that'll be the 10th-13th of September. They're going to be here for The Log Home & Timber Frame Expo - should be a loggy timberish good time. Mid to Late September or Early October would be perfect. Easily my favorite time of year. One question though, how much wine are you talking about? 5 glasses and I'm too toasted to drive as I don't drink very often. Yes, I'm a lightweight.

The food or Mama Dip?? The food - never met Mama Dip. I think the problem is consistency. I've been there 3 times, and sometimes what you order is good, other times it's not - even if it's the same dish. I bet there's a local place that does Southern style food better with more consistent results - but I'm not the one to ask about that. btw...my chant was inspired by the Hockey game :) They play that music constantly.

Over-rated Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap

Funny you should mention that as I ran across this yesterday http://www.northcarolina.com/stories/bbq.html It has also become traditional for the barbecue catering industry get a huge financial boost every election year. No one knows whom the first politician was to provide barbecue for supporters at political rallies, but for scores of years now virtually no candidate for office has been able to get away with a successful election without cooking at least one pig for the constituency. The practice has become so prevalent that even politicians outside of the state will send to North Carolina for expert barbecuers to come and impress their own supporters with the perfectly roasted pink pork.

This place is really easy to find. Take I-40 to Aviation Parkway Head West on Aviation Parkway (i.e. away from the airport) Stay on that road until you cross some train tracks --there will be a fire station right after Turn left into the first big shopping center - it's at most 1/4 mile past the tracks In total it's about 3 miles from I-40. ....just don't confuse Aviation Parkway with Airport Blvd

Bolognese

Yep.

Any of those nights work for us. btw...here's the website: http://towerindianrestaurant.com/

Are you sure that wasn't a half slab? 8 oz. for 9 bucks seems a bit steep. Although in some cases ribs can be worth that much (to me anyway ) Nope, it was 1/2 lb. I have a copy of the menu right here. I guess you're paying for the Brunswick stew, coleslaw, and roll because you can order a plain pound of ribs for just $10.50 as a 'Party Size Portion', although the menu says '24 Hour Notice Please'. But then it also says 'No substitutes' and I subsistuted, so maybe you can just buy a bunch of ribs and nothing else. Would defintely be a better deal.

As my family lives in Florida, we make a yearly (or so) drive down I-95 to visit them. It's a 10 hour drive, and given a choice we like to break up the monotony of it by having a decent lunch rather than a quick bite at some fast food restaurant. Usually we stop at the D&H Barbecue in Manning, SC, but this trip we left earlier than usual and that put us near Hardeeville, NC right around lunch time. After a search online, I found The Pink Pig and decided it'd be worth a try. http://www.southernliving.com/southern/tra...38598-4,00.html http://www.savannahnow.com/diversions/stor...00/RSTpig.shtml http://travel.roughguides.com/planning/jou...92&EntryID=6835 We ordered 1/2 lb of pork Ribs ($9.00) which came with coleslaw, Brunswick Stew, and a Roll. Not being a fan of Brunswick stew, I asked them to substitute some hush puppies for it. The ribs were pretty good...but different. They almost had the flavor of ham, and were certainly different then any ribs I'd had before. They had a nicely seasoned crispy exterior, and the meat was moist and pulled away from the bone easily. The flavor of the meat wasn't exactly what I think of when I think ribs, but it was good. The coleslaw was also pretty good, the hush puppies and roll weren't worth the bother. We also ordered a Chopped Barbecue Sandwich with fries ($4.75). We asked that it be served without sauce, but it showed up with sauce...and plenty of it. Their barbecue sauce is Honey Mustard based and very, very sweet. They also had a Low Country Fire sauce which tasted an awful lot like wing sauce, and apparently a 3rd sauce called "Gullah Spice", but I didn't see it anywhere. Either ways, the chopped barbecue itself was only okay, and there really was way too much sauce on the sandwhich - esp. for my wife who found it much to sweet for her taste. The ribs were a bit expensive for what you got, but if I were to stop there again, I'd get 2 orders of ribs, with some fries and skip the hushpuppies and chopped barbecue entirely. Just remember, the ribs are good...but different. Honestly though, next time I'd probably just try someplace in Savannah, as $25 seems a little steep for what you'd end up with there. They also serve fried fish (catfish or flounder), shrimp, scallops and chicken fingers. The restaurant itself was plenty clean, and painted an amazingly bright pink throughout...except for the bathrooms which were painted an amazingly bright green. Kind of a hard place to find, so here's directions: Hardeeville is near the SC / GA border about 15 miles north of Savannah. From I-95, Take exit 5 to 17 South, proceed about 5.5 miles. Turn left onto Hwy 170A. Follow 170A 3.5 miles. The building is on the right just before a caution light. If you've pass SR-46, you've gone to far and need to turn around.

??? I didn't know what it was myself, but I know someone asked the waiter at one point and I overheard. I do remember hearing Taro mentioned. Whatever it was, wasn't offensive tasting, just wasn't much at all. Didn't have much flavor, kind of a wierd texture. My experience with turnips is about on par with my experience with taro.

Turnips I think.

....and no one bought a digital camera!

We ordered a bunch of food off the 'Chinese' menu and it was good. Umm...let me see if I can remember: 7 (or was it 8?) treasures soup Creamy beef soup Beef stew in a clay pot Sautéed Shellfish in Black Bean Sauce in a clay pot (clams) Steamed duck with sea moss Broccoli in garlic sauce Some type of Hunan chicken dish The waiter was pretty cool, he seemed pretty excited about getting us to try some of the dishes on the Chinese Menu as opposed to the Americanized menu. It was a ton of food and ended up being pretty cheap as well. Most amazing factoid of the night - everyone seemed to have a degree in archeology.